In a manually operated stapler, which is a kind of stationery generally called “Hotchkiss” and used in common-houses, offices and manually operating sections in factories, C-shaped staples are mostly used as described in JP-Y2-55-028457.
C-shaped staples are formed in such a manner that dozens of staples detachably bonded to each other constitute a row of staple. The staples are charged into a magazine portion of a stapler, keeping the row. When a handle is manually pressed down so as to make a driver, which is linked with the handle, go down, the staples are stricken one by one into sheets of paper to be stapled. In this way, the sheets of paper are stapled. When the above series of stapling work is conducted, the staples are fed out to the striking portion and to clincher portion by a stapler feed mechanism.
However, in the case where the staples are formed into a C-shape, only 100 to 200 staples can be charged into the stapler at the same time, that is, a large number of staples can not be charged into the stapler by one operation.
Therefore, for example, when the conventional stapler, in which C-shaped staples are used, is used in an office or a manually operating section of a factory where a large number of staples are consumed, it is necessary to frequently carry out a staple charging operation in the case where staples accommodated in the magazine of the stapler are used up, that is, the stapling operation is very inefficient. In order to avoid charging staples highly frequently, it is necessary to accommodate a very large number of C-shaped staples in the stapler. Accordingly, dimensions of the stapler body are necessarily increased.
As described in JP-B2-2663801 and JP-A-08-229846, in the case that an electric stapler is built in a copier or printer, linear staples are used. In this case, the linear staples are arranged in a row of a predetermined length being formed into a sheet-shape, and a large number of the thus obtained sheets of staples are stacked each other and charged into the stapler.
Concerning the method of charging the staples into the electric stapler, a large number of sheet-shaped staple connecting bodies are stacked and accommodated in a refill cartridge, and the refill cartridge is further accommodated in a cartridge. In this case, the refill cartridge is defined as an inner cartridge attached inside the cartridge, and the inner cartridge accommodates a large number of stacked sheet-shaped staple connecting bodies.
As described in JP-A-08-099273, the refill cartridge is a box-shaped structure made of a sheet of paper or a thin resin sheet, the front and the upper portion of which are completely open. When the refill cartridge is used, it is inserted so that a face with an opening of the refill cartridge directs to the staple striking side. After the insertion of the refill cartridge, a bundling tape is removed.
When the cartridge, in which the refill cartridge containing staples is provided, is inserted into the magazine portion of the electric stapler, the staple charging work of the electric stapler is completed. At the same time, the sheet-shaped staple connecting body is pressed to a floor face of the refill cartridge by a member disposed on an upper face of the inside of the cartridge, for pressing the sheet-shaped staple connecting body. Therefore, the sheet-shaped staple connecting body can be fed being slid on the floor face of the refill cartridge. In this way, the electric stapler can be put into a usable state.
In the case of actually striking the staples, the driver operated synchronously with the rotation of a motor is made to go down, and the staples are stricken one by one into sheets of paper to be stapled. In this way, the sheets of paper can be stapled. When the above series of stapling work is conducted, the staples are successively fed to the striking portion and to the clincher portion by the feeding mechanism such as a roller and pushing member which are interlocked with the motion of the driver.
In order to solve the problems of the stapler having a very large number of C-shaped staples, that is, in order to solve the problems that the dimensions of the stapler are increased, it is possible to consider the structure described in Japanese Patent Application Number. 2001-12520, in which not C-shaped staples but linear staples are used and a large number of linear staples are detachably bonded to each other and charged into the stapler and bent into a C-shape by a mechanism provided on the stapler side in the process of stapling.
Constitution of this invention is described as follows. A sheet-shaped staple connecting body is included in the cartridge made of paper or rigid synthetic paper. The cartridge is attached to the magazine portion of the stapler. When a C-shaped arm member and a pressure member supported by the C-shaped arm member are inserted into the cartridge, the upper portion of which is open, the sheet-shaped staple connecting body is pressed to a bottom portion of the cartridge, so that the sheet-shaped staple connecting body is fed to the stapling mechanism by the feeding mechanism.
However, in the manual stapler in which the cartridge made of synthetic paper and the sheet-shaped staple connecting body are used, it is necessary to be able to easily open the magazine portion, and at the same time, it is necessary to be able to simply charge staples into the stapler in a similar manner to that of the conventional manual stapler. Unless the manual stapler, in which the cartridge made of synthetic paper and the sheet-shaped staple connecting body are used, is composed as described above, the stapler will be more inconvenient than the conventional stapler when it is used, that is, there is a possibility that the stapler can not be widely used.
Furthermore, the cartridge used for the conventional electric stapler has a polarity with respect to the longitudinal direction of the cartridge. Therefore, when the cartridge is erroneously set to the conventional electric stapler, it is impossible to use the stapler appropriately. Therefore, in the case where the cartridge of the manual stapler has a polarity in the longitudinal direction of the cartridge, for example, it is difficult for a person who is bad with machines to simply use the stapler.
Further, when the cartridge is composed of not a single part but a plurality of parts, from the viewpoints of manufacturers, since the number of parts is increased in the manufacturing process, the assembling work becomes complicated and the number of manufacturing processes is increased. From the viewpoints of consumers, there is a possibility that the parts are detached and lost. Therefore, when the cartridge is composed of not a single part but a plurality of parts, it is inefficient that the stapler is handily operated in the same manner as that of the conventional manual stapler, which causes an increase in the manufacturing cost.
Furthermore, only when the cartridge is formed into a box-shape, the feed mechanism for feeding the sheet-shaped staple connecting body does not operate properly. In the case where the sheet-shaped staple connecting body is directly put into the box-shaped cartridge, friction caused between the bottom face and the sheet-shaped staple connecting body is increased, and the cartridge is abraded. Accordingly, there is a possibility that the cartridge is damaged in the stapler before the sheet-shaped staple connecting body is used up. In addition, only when the cartridge is formed into a box-shape and has an opening portion for feeding a sheet-shaped staple connecting body, there is a high risk that the sheet-shaped staple connecting body drops from the cartridge while the cartridge is being conveyed.
Further, in the case of the cartridge concerned, when the member, which is provided on the inner roof of the cartridge of the conventional electric stapler so as to press the sheet-shaped staple connecting body to the cartridge floor, is adopted, the structure becomes complicated and further the number of parts is increased. Furthermore, it becomes necessary to enhance the mechanical strength of each member, which causes an increase in the manufacturing cost. Therefore, the member to press the sheet-shaped staple connecting body to the cartridge floor can not be provided.
Therefore, although it is necessary to provide on the stapler side the above member for pressing the sheet-shaped staple connecting body to the cartridge floor, the cartridge must be provided with a structure to receive the above pressing member.
The present invention has been accomplished to solve the above problems. It is an object of the present invention to prevent an increase in the dimensions of a stapler body compared with the stapler, in which C-shaped staples are used, by adopting the cartridge of the present invention when a large number of sheet-shaped staple connecting bodies are charged into the stapler.
It is another object of the present invention to simply attach a cartridge containing a sheet-shaped staple connecting body to the stapler and reduce a possibility that the staples are erroneously charged.
It is still another object of the present invention to prevent a sheet-shaped staple connecting body from dropping off from a cartridge in the process of conveying the cartridge when the device is composed so that the damage of the cartridge can not be caused in the magazine.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a cartridge having both the function of an outer cartridge to be attached to a stapler and the function of a refill cartridge in which staples are only contained.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a stapler, a cartridge and a system in which the stapler and cartridge are combined with each other, characterized in that: the generation of refuse is prevented by using a thin plate for composing a cartridge; and even when the cartridge is composed of the thin plate, the structure can be made simple while the above structural conditions are being satisfied.
In the above system, even when two or more sheets of sheet-shaped staple connecting bodies are sent to the stapling system, only one sheet of sheet-shaped staple connecting body is made to pass in the actual stapling mechanism, so that the stapler can be prevented from jamming and damaging.